Overview

I am currently engaged in work that spans three very different aspects of current biology: insecticide resistance, insect mimicry, and bacterial virulence (both to insects and to man). I use state-of-the art molecular techniques, such as cloning, BAC finger-printing, and EST sequencing, to facilitate advances in each of these important fields. My study organisms include Drosophila, several butterfly species, and the bacterial pathogen Photorhabdus. I am a member of the evolution research group.

My research has received substantial media coverage by a number of organizations and in a variety of formats. Mostly recently, our lab was featured in a short Nature video on the genetic control of butterfly mimicry.

Qualifications

1987: PhD at Imperial College, London University UK, in insecticide resistance
1983: MSc at the University of Southampton, UK, in entomology
1982: BSc (Hons) at the University of Exeter, UK, in biology

Career

2006-present Chair of Molecular Natural History, Biosciences, University of Exeter
2000-2006 Chair of Molecular Biology, Biology, and Biochemistry, University of Bath
1990-2000 Associate Professor of Entomology, Entomology, UW Madison, USA
1988-1990 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cornell University, USA
1987-1989 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Research group links

• Insect Evolutionary Ecology

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Research

Research projects

Insecticide resistance: I am interested in the number of genes that control resistance, their nature and their frequency and fitness in natural populations. We work on the Resistance to dieldrin gene which encodes a GABA receptor and also on the metabolic resistance conferred by cytochrome P450s. Central questions are: How do resistance associated mutations have their effect? How many times do these mutations evolve? Do they carry any fitness cost?

Butterfly mimicry: I am also interested in the molecular nature of the genes that control mimicry in butterflies. We work on models of both Batesian and Mullerian mimicry. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of North America has melanic females that mimic the Pipevine Swallowtail. We study the molecular basis of pigment production and the nature of the switch gene that turns these yellow and black butterflies black.

We also work on Mullerian mimicry in Heliconius butterflies. Here we collaborate with Chris Jiggins (Cambridge) and Sean Humphray (Sanger) to clone the genes involved in colouration in H. melpomene, H. erato and H. numata. Central questions are: How many genes control colour pattern in different species? What are the genes that control colouration? Do different species use the same genes to achieve the same patterns?

Bacterial infection: We use bacterial that kill insects (Photorhabdus) to study the interaction between bacterial effectors and the insect immune system. We clone novel bacterial effectors from Photorhabdus and then use RNAi in the model host Manduca to study the insects immune response to bacterial infection. Central questions are: Do pathogens hide from the immune system or simply destroy it? What toxins do pathogens use to kill insects?

Research networks

• Chris Jiggins, Zoology, Cambridge
• Mathieu Joron, Zoology, Edinburgh
• Sean Humphray, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton
• Rene Feyereisen INRA Sophia-Antipolis France

Research grants

• 2007 BBSRC
  Heliconius mimicry
• 2007 BBSRC
  Bacterial virulence
• 2007 Leverhulme Trust
  Heliconius micmicry
• 2005 BBSRC
  Mcf toxins
• 2003 BBSRC
  Underwood award
• 2002 BBSRC
  Photorhabdus genomics
• 2002 Royal Society
  Merit Award
• 2000 Wellcome/JIF
  Photorhabdus genomics
• 2000 Leverhulme Trust
  Butterfly melanism
• 2000 Royal Society
  Butterfly melanism
• 2000 Syngenta
  Insecticide resistance

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Awards/Honorary fellowships

2001 Royal Society Merit Award, University of Bath

Committee/panel activities

Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship Panel (Royal Society)

Editorial responsibilities

2007-Present Invertebrate Neuroscience

1997-Present Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology

1995-Present Pest Management Science

Research expeditions:

Photorhabdus collection in the Amazon, Brazil (2000);

Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus collection in Vietnam (as part of FP7 grant GAMEXP)(2010);

Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus collection in Thailand (as part of FP7 grant GAMEXP)(2011)

Invited lectures

8th European Congress of Entomology, Izmir, Turkey (2006);

International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry, Kobe, Japan (2006);

Society for Invertebrate Pathology, Quebec City, Canada (2007);

11th European Meeting of the IOBC/WPRS Working group, Ales, France (2007);

American Chemical Society meeting, Chicago, USA (2007);

Society for Invertebrate Pathology, University of Warwick, UK (2008);

International Congress of Entomology, Durban, South Africa (2008);

International P450 Meeting, Nice, France (2008);

International meeting of Toxinology, Recife, Brazil (2009);

Metabolism meets virulence, Munich, Germany (2009);

ETOX International Toxinology meeting, Obernai France (2009);

International Meeting on Pathogen Genomics, Pasteur, France (2010);

Mahidol Tropical Medicine Unit, Bangkok, Thailand (2011);

International Nematology Meeting, Corvallis, USA (2011)

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Teaching

Undergraduate

• BIO1411 Genetics
• Dorset Fieldcourse
• South Africa Fieldcourse

I also supervise student research projects about the relationships between moths and anthropogenic lights, and chough foraging on grasslands.

Modules

2023/24

• BIO1411 - Genetics

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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Office Hours:

My office hours are:

Monday 11-12noon

Friday 11-12noon

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